Is it too late for a gift aid mop up mailing?
Before we see the green shoots of Spring, we have to get through the 72-week month that is January. We have the unexpected freeze brought about by a Beast from Somewhere. And don’t forget the discombobulating lurch forward of the clocks.
And let’s not even talk about the annual self-assessment submission and the plethora of angst-inducing marketing and emails from HMRC.
It feels like the first quarter of every year has nothing positive to offer.
But have we got this wrong?
On the 6th April, this financial year moves into the next one, and the oldest of the Gift Aid claim period years will be lost. Right now you just about have time to see if you can get more supporters on board with a Gift Aid declaration and still get an end of year claim in.
The looming end of the financial year can act as a boost to your call to action. It can provide a time-limited urgency to spur supporters into action. I would stop short of the cliched red stamp imagery on the outside of the pack. Nor engage in “Time’s running out…” tropes. But a gentle reminder that you won’t be able to claim Gift Aid on any donations made by the supporter between 6th April 2019 and the 5th April 2020, may be enough to get people to take action.
Gift Aid mop up mailings are a great way to not only make some much-needed income but also give you an additional opportunity to demonstrate to your supporters that – here is an organisation doing as much as possible to generate the funds needed to provide the greatest level of service.
There’s lots of information out there about Gift Aid. Try looking at some of the content created by other charities for inspiration; both British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK have great pages that clearly explain Gift Aid.
Here’s a simple checklist of things you could do to get your gift aid mop up mailing out the door:
Create a list of supporters who do not currently have an active declaration
Split them into 2-3 segments based on their giving history i.e. active/recent cash donors, active regular donors, lapsed donors of any kind.
Create your gift aid mop up mailing content to include some easy FAQs. Make sure they answer the main questions supporters have about Gift Aid i.e., what does it mean to be “A UK taxpayer”?
Keep it as simple as you possibly can. Don’t get bogged down in the HMRC Gift Aid toolkit. Don’t think you have to account for every random scenario – 95% of all Gift Aid is straightforward. Most of the weirder scenarios don’t involve the supporter but would be decided by the organisation. For instance the benefit rule would be decided ahead of including or excluding membership income in a claim.
Check the Gift Aid form against the current HMRC requirements. If you’re not 100% sure ask a colleague or get some peer feedback. The Gift Aid group on Facebook is a great place to start, if not, try something like the Lone Fundraisers group, Fundraising Chat, Freelancers Group or Data in Fundraising. All will be able to provide feedback or signpost you to a more appropriate source.
If possible:
Setup an online form that mirrors the paper one, so that you can collect information more easily.
Make sure your Supporter Care Team (or whoever responds to supporter queries) is up to speed on Gift Aid before the mailing goes out. They need to be ready to answer any ad hoc questions or be able to confidently pass the supporter to someone who can answer any questions.
Lastly, make sure you are ready to record the new declarations as they come in, from your gift aid mop up mailing and have the time and hands to get them recorded ready to do a final claim ahead of the end of the financial year.
You may want to identify those that have donations in the 2019/20 financial year as these are the ones you will not be able to claim on after the 6th April 2024.
Also, don’t think that every organisation must reinvent the wheel. If you’re a smaller charity, you could consider a collaboration; not a joint declaration/claim, but a sharing of the workload and resource. Four small charities working together to design the FAQs and the form, which are used by all – with different branding, might be a quicker way of getting this organised.
Sharing brain power and resource can help to get this done!
And lastly, don’t sweat it. If you do get this organised and mailed, but you can’t get the information recorded before the end of the year, the organisation won’t collapse. It’s easy for me to say, “You’ll only lose one financial years-worth of Gift Aid”, but it’s true, and as you never had this money in the first place, you won’t really lose anything, and you’ll still be gaining more than you had in the first place from the rest of the money you will be claiming. So, don’t use this as an excuse to beat yourself up. See it as a significant step forward and recognise what you have achieved:
- you have identified those that don’t have a declaration
- you now have a better understanding of the Gift Aid rules
- you have an up-to-date Gift Aid form
- (maybe) you have created an online form
- you have a set of clearly written FAQs
- you have better supporter care guidelines and finally
- you have more declarations which will bring more income
Phew! That’s a lot.
Hopefully you’ve been inspired by this and can work out a plan to get this set up. Now if only we could find such an easy way to manage all our fundraising!
